Behind the Scenes 2002

Here is how Hawaii Business compiled this year’s Top 250 list.

August, 2002

This year, more than 20 people were involved in the Top 250 project: researchers, business reporters, a computer technician, a magazine art director and a team of top-notch photographers.

In late February, librarians Chris Tomoyasu, Audrey Minei and Elaine Schultz used databases to provideHawaii Businesswith a list of 500 companies and estimated annual gross sales. These companies were either new or displaced from previous Top 250 lists.

Hawaii Businessthen handpicked 250 companies from the list and combined them with last year’s Top 250 companies. Then the data was handed over to Honolulu-based Mattson-Sunderland Research and Planning Associates Inc.

“It was a very hard year,” she says. “But it separated the men from the mice. We ended up with some really good [companies] standing and should all be really proud.”

Tomoyasu then organized the verified data into categories: sublists, companies with incomplete information, companies that refused to participate and companies with gross annual sales that were too low (this year’s cut-off was $17 million).

Hawaii Business’I.T. Director, Dan Cameron, spent one week preparing the data for Director of Design, Creative Services & Production Jayson Harper, who then designed the pages. But unlike the researchers or writers, Harper and Cameron had only three weeks to do their jobs. The magazine went to press on July 11.